Kilburn Cosmos 1st XV vs Old Abbotstonians - 15th November 2008

Kilburn Cosmos 25 - Old Abbotstonians 30

Kilburn Cosmos were sunk by a last minute try in a close encounter with Old Abbotstonians on Saturday at Tiverton Green.

Despite dominating the set piece, stealing much of the oppositions’ ball, and generally getting off to a good start, Kilburn could not capitalise and failed to put points on the board early.

In a physical, end to end game, Kilburn’s opening play saw them push the visitors right back to their own line, only to lose the ball and quickly be driven back to their own 22 where an eagle-eyed Abbotstonian player took sharp chance at a drop goal and put the home side three points down.

Kilburn hit back straight away and levelled with a penalty kick from 30 metres, slotted by fly half Chris Garvey. With the upper hand in the set pieces thanks to hooker Declan McGee, props Scott Hughes and Phil Morgan and lock John Fenlon, Kilburn were establishing a dominant position in the game and were quickly up to 6-3 when the visitors conceded another penalty in range of Garvey’s boot.

Kilburn lost their edge though after notching up another 7 points when Garvey converted McGee’s brilliant solo try which came from a powerful burst through the middle of a ruck on the Abbots 22m line, giving him a clear run at their try line. Almost as soon as Kilburn sat back, the visitors fought their way up the field and took two soft tries and a penalty. Kilburn rallied, with a Hayden Wilson try from long range, again converted by Garvey.

With the narrowest of leads running up to the interval, Kilburn suffered the loss of Garvey and Fenlon in an unlucky head clash, both being hospitalised. The scores at half time were a precarious 20 points to 18.

Kilburn toiled in the start of the second half, their scrum weakened by the loss of Hughes and Fenlon. Replacement prop Ben Zaug and McGee put in a huge effort to shore up the scrum and eventually Cosmos were firing again after a decidedly shaky third quarter. Aly Bursey answered the visitors opening score of the second half with an uncoverted effort of his own, keeping the home side up 25-23.

For the last 20 minutes the game reached a rare level of intensity, with everything still to play for. The ball moved from end to end with everyone putting in everything they had. Kilburn came close to scoring again when prop Phil Morgan made a 30 metre break down field to set up a move well inside the opposition’s half who had to scramble back to stop a try. In the end though it was the visitors who found the extra energy to burst over with a last gasp try to sink Cosmos 25-30 in the dying seconds.

Kilburn 25 (D Magee, H Wilson, A Bursey tries, C Garvey 2 conversions, 1 penalty, S Whyte penalty) Old Abbotstonians 30

Team: P Morgan, D Magee(C), S Hughes, J Fenlon, A Butcher, J Trout, A Bursey, K Shrubsole, L MacManus, C Garvey, M Taguri, H Dawkins, H Wilson, C Coane, D Riley. Reserve: B Zaug, M King, S Whyte